Hybrid Corolla 22 accident - back wheel fell

[Italo]

Hi folks,

Apologies if I am using the wrong channel, but just to get some opinion.

3 weeks ago my wife was driving close to my place and she lost the control of the car and crashed it in a guardrail.

The car despite being around 35/40km had a lot of damage in front where it hit.

my doubt is, whe I arrived at the accident local the guys from the ambulance + Garda suggested me to take pictures of the back wheel because there is no reason for it fall.

I took it, you can see attached, but I up to now my car is in the insurance garage and both the mechanic and the expert were not very convincing and already suggested starting the car repair. Next week  I will have another inspection of the car, but honestly I still don't feel safe to get this far back and put my family in. 

My new born was in the car during the accident.

If someone had this problem, or have any advice that would be great.

thanks,

In need to get the pictures of the front of the car I will take this week.

the picture of the front of the car was take before the car accident I am just showing for you see the model and year of the car.

but regarding the back wheel there is no damage in the wheel, I will take more pictures of it  and post it here too.

I just can’t understand how the axle broke…

[FROSTYBALLS]

Moved to the Corolla forum.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Was the guardrail on the nearside or offside of the road?If

Presume the speed was 35-40km per hour??

If the nearside, was there a kerb that the rear could have sideswiped and put undue force on the axle.

OK damage to the front may be severe - but the crumple zones have done their job.

At the end of the day, it is an insurance repair regardless of other factors.

[Cyker]

It's a bit counter-intuitive, but the worse the damage is the better it is for the people inside - The reason is, all the impact energy that would have gone to the passengers goes into the crash zones instead.

You see this in motor racing - Whenever there is a horrific crash, if the car looks practically destroyed around the edges, the driver usually walks away from it, but if the car is almost totally intact, it's often fatal.

It does make it a pain to repair, but the reasoning and perspective is repairing cars is easier and cheaper than repairing humans.

That said I'd be curious to know what snapped the axle too - Toyota axles are usually very good quality. Judging by the fact that the brake disc has been snapped in half, there must have been a strong side impact that put a twisting force perpendicular to the axle or something...

[Big_D]

16 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Judging by the fact that the brake disc has been snapped in half, there must have been a strong side impact that put a twisting force perpendicular to the axle or something...

I agree. 

[Italo]

52 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Moved to the Corolla forum.

I didn’t have this option when I was posting…

[Cyker]

Don't worry, it gives frosty something to do  *ducks*

 

[Italo]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

Don't worry, it gives frosty something to do  *ducks*

 

Hehe

[AisinW]

I am not sure if you have option to total the car and get cash from insurance instead. If it is not too bad and the broken parts are mainly suspension, they can be fully replaced. As long as the frame is repaired and welded properly with spot welding and new parts instead of pulling here and there, the car are still save and can habe 99% of the original structural strength. 

However, if it has beep here and there, errors, etc. You shoul ask insurance company take care of it until it is fully fix and they must provide you a rental car when waiting for it. Once it is done, switch to other insurance company if they slap you with ridiculous rate. 

Otherwise, you can sell the car and get similar year. Auris2 and Corolla body structural are very good, as good as you can get from luxury germans. 

[nielshm]

The brake disc seems like it just snapped. What happened first, did the wheel or axel break, wich made your wife loose control, or did the wheel break due to hitting the quardrail?

The axel should never break, unless speed is very high. And it's stange that the brake disc doesnt even have a  bend. 

I would claim a full replacement of brakes, axels, bearings etc. on all 4 wheels, even if there's no visible damage. Maybe there has been a faulty batch of certain components, and it's best to get everything replaced.

[flash22]

That rear wheel has taken a hard impact to shear a rear hub like that, that needs a lot more in-depth inspection, as it could have damaged the suspension and rear subframe

it looks like a write off to me, get an independent inspection done

[Bernard Foy]

I would not accept a repair until I had a motor engineer who is independent of the insurance company assess your car. It looks to me like that there would be more damage to the actual wheel if there was a serious enough impact on it to shear the axle. Judging by the picture there’s hardly any damage visible to the wheel. If he agrees that a repair is the proper option only then would I allow repairs to be carried out. It’s your choice.

[FROSTYBALLS]

16 hours ago, Italo said:

The car despite being around 35/40km had a lot of damage in front where it hit

Thinking again about the quoted speed, 35-40kph equates to 22-25mph - seems quite a low speed to have caused the damage, and if she lost control I would suggest the speed was probably higher.

 

[TonyHSD]

This axle to break must have been a very serious impact at odd angle or the hub itself been defective. In fact there are no signs of rust on the inner broken metal cut means something went terribly wrong in a fraction of a second., plus the brake disc to snap like a chocolate bar?!
Toyota needs to be informed and investigate this accident, just to confirm whether it’s from impact or defective part. 

[Italo]

4 hours ago, AisinW said:

I am not sure if you have option to total the car and get cash from insurance instead. If it is not too bad and the broken parts are mainly suspension, they can be fully replaced. As long as the frame is repaired and welded properly with spot welding and new parts instead of pulling here and there, the car are still save and can habe 99% of the original structural strength. 

However, if it has beep here and there, errors, etc. You shoul ask insurance company take care of it until it is fully fix and they must provide you a rental car when waiting for it. Once it is done, switch to other insurance company if they slap you with ridiculous rate. 

Otherwise, you can sell the car and get similar year. Auris2 and Corolla body structural are very good, as good as you can get from luxury germans. 

Thanks…

about the insurance fee I am expecting something big next year… when at the first time O reported them the accident they already said me that the price would considerably increase…

[FROSTYBALLS]

13 minutes ago, Italo said:

You shoul ask insurance company take care of it until it is fully fix and they must provide you a rental car when waiting for it.

Not necessarily. Depends on the insurance policy as to whether a courtesy car is provided whilst the car is being repaired. Some policies will only provide a courtesy car if one has opted for that paid choice when taking out the policy, and the courtesy car may not be like for like (ie a Corolla sized car). Check your policy.

[Italo]

1 hour ago, TonyHSD said:

This axle to break must have been a very serious impact at odd angle or the hub itself been defective. In fact there are no signs of rust on the inner broken metal cut means something went terribly wrong in a fraction of a second., plus the brake disc to snap like a chocolate bar?!
Toyota needs to be informed and investigate this accident, just to confirm whether it’s from impact or defective part. 

Agree…

That’s why I haven’t accepted the garage start to repair.

my wife wasn’t in a highway, local suburb road around 30/40 Km/h.

next week I will go to the garage and take pictures of the frontside/face of the wheel. 
Im still trying to figure it out, how an axle broke without any damage in the wheel. The only theory would be the a kind of strong impact in specifically angle. But I have other question… if the impact was hard then why the airbags didn’t open with the shock?

[Cyker]

The airbags don't normally deploy except in extreme circumstances - The fact that the car is still car-shaped means the impact wasn't severe enough.

I've been told hitting an airbag is like being punched in the face - That being the case, you'd have to imagine they'd only set them to go off in circumstances where it not going off would be *worse* than being punched in the face!

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

At such a low speed  (up to 40kph - 25mph) it may not have been sufficent for the airbags to deploy. Aside from that if the area where the sensors are wasn't impacted, then the airbags wouldn't have been triggered.

As regards the car being written off, damage would need to exceed around 50% of the car's value.

[Italo]

11 minutes ago, Cyker said:

The airbags don't normally deploy except in extreme circumstances - The fact that the car is still car-shaped means the impact wasn't severe enough.

I've been told hitting an airbag is like being punched in the face - That being the case, you'd have to imagine they'd only set them to go off in circumstances where it not going off would be *worse* than being punched in the face!

 

Got it.

[Italo]

2 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

At such a low speed  (up to 40kph - 25mph) it may not have been sufficent for the airbags to deploy. Aside from that if the area where the sensors are wasn't impacted, then the airbags wouldn't have been triggered.

As regards the car being written off, damage would need to exceed around 50% of the car's value.

Yep, almost there… 12k the repair…

[Italo]

1 hour ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Not necessarily. Depends on the insurance policy as to whether a courtesy car is provided whilst the car is being repaired. Some policies will only provide a courtesy car if one has opted for that paid choice when taking out the policy, and the courtesy car may not be like for like (ie a Corolla sized car). Check your policy.

My policy covered 7 days… small car.

I gave back the car already.

now my car is an asics Kayano year 2021.

[Italo]

2 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Thinking again about the quoted speed, 35-40kph equates to 22-25mph - seems quite a low speed to have caused the damage, and if she lost control I would suggest the speed was probably higher.

 

I wish I had at least an access of the cctvs in the area.

i asked my neighbors but it seems none of them got it recorded… a bit weird…

🤔

[Italo]

3 hours ago, Bernard Foy said:

I would not accept a repair until I had a motor engineer who is independent of the insurance company assess your car. It looks to me like that there would be more damage to the actual wheel if there was a serious enough impact on it to shear the axle. Judging by the picture there’s hardly any damage visible to the wheel. If he agrees that a repair is the proper option only then would I allow repairs to be carried out. It’s your choice.

The engineer who is checking the car is a service provider that my insurance paid it for.

Are you suggesting that I hire another on my own? If yes, Do you have some names in the Dublin area?

Really appreciate your comment.

 

[TonyHSD]

I believed your car might get written off.
The thing is that it doesn’t look like a impact damage but more like faulty part and it’s very important the dealer or insurance company who access it to escalate further with Toyota headquarters so Toyota are aware and run their investigation. Or perhaps you get in touch with them, send an email with pictures. 

This is the strongest metal part you can find in any car and to be broken by the impact force the car would have been totally destroyed and the suspension would have been gone beyond recognition. However we can see we have intact suspension with only hub and disc broken. ⚠️

What happened then: 

- the hub assembly unexpectedly broke and locked  the wheel, attached only by the brake disc.
The car went uncontrollable because it’s the same as you do a parking brake turn at speed resulting oversteer and lost of control while under the weight of the car the disc got broken and the wheel went off leaving  the car 3 wheeler and the following crash. 
No further damage to suspension parts except dust protection for the disc. 
Toyota needs to look at this case very seriously as other similar cars might get this unfortunate situation.